Selfless acts recounted during Health Care Heroes event in Charleston

Military service members and a deaf teen who testified before a Congressional committee about the value of making hearing options available to all children, received standing ovations at the 2012 Health Care Heroes event held last week in Charleston.

Dr. Ann Kulze, who moderated the awards, extolled the healthful virtues of dark chocolate, which she picked as her food hero of the night.

“Come over to the dark side,” she said, “because if you do, you can get all those benefits.”

Though the 22 Health Care Heroes finalists all said they were just doing their jobs, the Charleston community and business leaders came out to honor them all during a night of thanking others and recounting acts of bravery and choices that changed and saved lives.

Finalist and winner Lt. Col Monica Lovasz, who served in Kuwait with the 628th Medical Group at Joint Base Charleston as a staff psychiatrist, helps war veterans cope with post-traumatic stress syndrome.

“It is one of the greatest passions in my life,” Lovasz said. “Being in the military makes it just that much better. It’s a privilege to serve with our nation’s heroes and war heroes.”

Finalist and winner Tim Pitko of Personal Care Ambulance recalled being at a bar when he noticed someone was struggling to breathe.

“I said you need to call 911 right now. He’s about to die,” Pitko told the bartender who didn’t think he was serious at first but made the call. Pitko said her actions and the actions of Charleston County and other emergency response crews all worked together to save the man’s life.

“We all worked as a team together,” he said. “I just played one part.”

North Charleston firefighter and finalist David Reindollar talked about the signatures and messages that cancer survivors and their families left on a pink fire truck owned by the city. Reindollar and others helped get the fire truck painted and operational to raise awareness about cancer.